Justin Allgaier is now a two-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, and while he will get plenty of accolades for his on-track success, the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet is also a guiding force for the young drivers he is consistently beating for these race wins and now two championships.
The ages of the four drivers Allgaier bested on Saturday are 20, 21, 23, and 29. He also has three full-time teammates under the age of 25, making the 40-year-old Allgaier a valuable asset as a mentor for to his teammates at JR Motorsports. Allgaier seems like the bar these rising stars look to to make themselves better drivers both behind the wheel and beyond the track. He is also the one on the receiving end of many of the mistakes as they improve their craft on the track.
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Allgaier’s unique position among the NOAPS garage
Justin Allgaier and Jesse Love talk after race
Justin Allgaier and Jesse Love talk after race
Motorsport.com asked team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. about Allgaier’s unique role in the garage, acknowledging it must be difficult at times to be a mentor when you’re also the driver paying the price for many of their mistakes.
“We all hear it,” said Earnhardt. “Justin mentors drivers that aren’t even on our team. He has to put up with so much crap. All these young guys come to this series, make so many mistakes around him, he has to kind of bite his tongue so many times. Even in our own building, we’ve had races where we get these young guys that come in, you’re trying to shepherd them, tutor them, create an opportunity for them.
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“The idea in a perfect world is they’re there for a short period of time, then move up. They knock Justin out of the way somewhere. You got to figure out how to have that conversation with them and where they learn a lesson, but also get Justin to understand his role as a veteran within the team, ’cause he’s the constant. He’s the one that’s going to be there next year.
“That’s been difficult at times. But he has taken to the mentorship and being the veteran and being the voice in the room. He has taken it really well. I don’t know. I sometimes feel like I wouldn’t have been as good at putting up with some of the hassle that he has to deal with sometimes from teammates over the course of his career in the building.
“Yeah, he’s had a fast enough car this year he hasn’t had to worry about it. He’s been ahead of ’em all year. You put enough fast cars on the racetrack, they’re going to run into each other every now and then.”
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Eric Warren, the VP of Global Motorsports competition for GM, added that he sees Allgaier as “very valuable to the Chevrolet program as a whole. He really does a lot of the development of the tools, and he sets a great example for the young drivers coming up. And he also does a lot on the Cup Series for us. He’s played that role for a long time now. He really helps as you bring young drivers to know that you can be a veteran and also contribute to the group as a whole.”
Crew chief Andrew Overstreet agreed, praising Allgaier for his work in the simulator and his mentorship of younger drivers.
“I’ve seen him take under his wing a lot of these guys that might be in lower-class cars. He wants to see all of ’em succeed,” said Overstreet. “You look back at Dover when we lost that race from the 55 car, that kid [Blake Lothian] had come up to Justin quite a bit to get guidance. That kid was disappointed because he had hurt Justin, but Justin wasn’t mad at him. He took him under is his wing to try to get him better.
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“It’s great to see the type of person that Justin is to help grow this sport and help these young guys, especially the ones that might not have the opportunity or money to be in the top tier. He wants to see the lower-tier guys be able to do good things.”
“My job is to leave this sport in a better spot than where I found it”
Justin Allgaier wins championship, No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Justin Allgaier wins championship, No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet
Motorsport.com later followed up with Allgaier on that, who first wanted to note that he himself had “great mentors” when he was coming up through the sport, and he remembers how helpful they were in helping him find his way.
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“You don’t know what you don’t know,” said Allgaier. “We say that all the time. It’s really true. There’s so many guys in the sport that have made it to a level of really high, high caliber race teams, opportunities. They just have never learned. That’s not the fault of their own. It’s just the circumstance of it.
“Jesse [Love, championship runner-up] and I have had some spirited battles on the racetrack. We’ll just say that. We had some spirited conversations off the racetrack. But it was super cool tonight. Jesse came to Victory Lane. I could see the disappointment on his face, right? Also, he made it very clear that he was going to miss racing with me and he was going to miss the times we had conversations together.
“I remember actually sitting here at this racetrack last year and having conversations with Jesse about he was getting ready to make some Cup Series starts. I was an open book. I told him everything he needed to know that I could divulge information.
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“He left and came back, You weren’t kidding. You didn’t hold anything back. I said, ‘no, and I won’t.’ Whether they be young drivers, veteran drivers, teammates, non-teammates, my job is to leave this sport in a better spot than where I found it.”
He finds it strange to think about how some of the drivers he has mentored have gone on to become NASCAR Cup champions and race winners, and he’s “perfectly happy” with a driver beating him with the very knowledge he gave them.
“I will never shy away from helping these young drivers, especially because I want to see our sport grow to a point of when they leave here and go to the Cup Series, go back down to the Truck Series, when they stick around in the O’Reilly Series, they’re better for it, both on the track and off the track,” added Allgaier.
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“I still want to beat ’em. Nights like tonight are more fruitful when you beat those guys because you know you helped them. It sucks getting your butt kicked by some of these guys you know you’ve helped them along the way. You smile in it, enjoy it. You definitely take a lot of solace in that.”
Allgaier will now attempt to achieve something never before seen in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series — winning a third championship in 2027.
Watch: Allgaier aging like fine wine: ‘I’ve had more fun this year than I’ve ever had’
Read Also:
Justin Allgaier wins 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly championship as Brandon Jones wins Homestead finale
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
